DAMN! - Beijing wins Olympic bid

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CNN just reporting.

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2001

Answers

If China invades Taiwan anyway, remember you heard it here first!

I wonder how many countries, if any, will boycott the games? maybe we can start a list?

1. Taiwan 2. [pick any other asian country?] 56. US

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2001


But Barefoot, dear, didn't you hear? Taiwan isn't a separate country (especially where the China Olympics are concerned).

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2001

Beijing Wins Olympics for China

July 13, 2001 10:11 am EST

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Beijing was awarded the 2008 Olympics on Friday when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted to take the Games to the world's most populous country for the first time.

The Chinese capital, which lost out by just two votes to Sydney in the race to stage the 2000 Games, defeated Paris, Toronto, Istanbul and Osaka.

IOC members voted in favor of Beijing despite international concern at China's human rights record.

The result was announced by IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch who is standing down after 21 years at the helm of the world's leading sports organization.



-- Anonymous, July 13, 2001


Has Taiwan ever sent athletes to the Olympics before?

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2001

As some talking head said on TV last night, in response to those who supported Beijing's bid, No, it will not make them more responsive to human rights--did the 1938 Olympics make Nazi Germany more responsive? Or words to that effect.

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2001


Times of India, May 18, 2001

China-Taiwan Olympic games unlikely

TAIPEI: Taiwan's vice-president labelled Beijing's offer to let Taiwan hold some events in the 2008 Summer Games a trap after China tacked on an important precondition: Taipei must agree to a one-China principle.

Beijing is one of the front-runners to play host to the Olympics, and there has been talk during the past year that China would use the event to make peace with this island, which split from the mainland when the communists took over five decades ago.

The idea was floated again on Wednesday in the state-run China Daily, which quoted sports official Yuan Weimin as saying "there is some possibility for Taiwan to hold some events under the principle" of one-China.

That principle states Taiwan and the mainland are all part of China.

China's offer did not create much of a buzz in Taiwan. One of Asia's most vibrant democracies, Taipei insists it is a legitimate government in its own right and does not want to be lumped together with repressive China.

"One China is a trap," Taiwan's outspoken vice president, Annette Lu, said on Wednesday. "It's like a lion's cage set up for a kitty to enter."

Taiwan would be willing to take up Beijing's offer as long as China does not politicise the games, she said. But, she said, Taiwan could not accept the one-China principle in exchange for cooperating on the Olympics.

He Zhenliang, the most senior Chinese International Olympic Committee member, said the original proposal had come from Taiwan, so he was surprised by Lu's reaction.

"It was proposed by them. We aren't offering something - they are asking for something. How can I respond about this lady?" he said.

Olympic events have been held far afield of the host city before.

During the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, soccer matches were played in Melbourne and Canberra. Softball was held in Columbus, Georgia, during the 1996 games in Atlanta, and yachting in waters off of Savannah.

Jacques Rogge, a member of the IOC executive board, said in his sport - sailing - it was not uncommon for events to be held hundreds or even thousands of kilometers from the host city.

But Rogge said the proposal to hold some competitions in Taiwan would be contrary to the Olympic Charter, which does not allow for Summer Games events to be held in different countries. However, most nations do not consider Taiwan to be a sovereign nation and do not have formal diplomatic ties with the island.

"Let's first look at it from the operational point of view, then from the juridical point of view, then from the political point of view," he said from Switzerland.

IOC director general Francois Carrard said the group could not consider the matter until it received a formal proposal.

There are other pitfalls that make a China-Taiwan Olympic games unlikely.

China has waged a diplomatic campaign to isolate the island's government, and only 30 some countries have established ties with Taiwan - most of them small, poor nations in Africa and Latin America.

Because China has threatened to invade Taiwan, the island has been reluctant to allow direct air and shipping links between the two sides. Those who fly between the two sides must go through a third point - usually Hong Kong or Macau - a trip that can take up to 10 hours.

And then there's the matter of the athletes. Taiwan began taking part in the Olympics in the early 1980s under the name "Chinese Taipei," and it was not clear what would happen to those athletes if Taiwan were to accept Beijing's offer.

However, the former British colony of Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997, is allowed to have its own Olympic team, and Taiwan might be able to do the same.

The IOC report released on Tuesday ranked Beijing, Paris and Toronto as the top three candidate cities for the 2008 Summer Games. Osaka, Japan and Istanbul, Turkey, lagged behind, but the IOC said it would not force them to pull out ahead of the committee's July 13 vote that will decide the host city.

Aided by massive financial and propaganda support from China's communist government, Beijing has proposed a massive facelift for the Olympics. An investment of about $20 billion will add 22 new gymnasiums and stadiums along with vast swathes of green space.

Beijing's bid also has huge popular support among Chinese, who see playing host to the games as affirmation of their country's rise to prominence and offering the chance to erase the bitter disappointment of losing out to Sydney in 2000.

Strolling through a swanky underground shopping mall in Beijing on Wednesday, bank clerk Lu Fuzong said if popular support was the deciding factor "they would have to give to Beijing." But he worried that the bid could still fall prey to political forces in the IOC.

"I think we'll have problems. It's a matter of the larger environment and that's more complicated," he said.

China's last attempt to win the games was dogged by concerns over human rights abuses and the bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing.

Beijing's bid got ringing endorsements Wednesday from Don King and Evander Holyfield, who arrived to scout out the city for a heavyweight championship bout on August 5. King expressed hopes that the fight would boost Beijing's prospects.

"We will just be a door-opener to 2008 when we bring the Olympics here to the great city of Beijing and the great People's Republic of China." (AP)

[To answer my own question...LOL]Chinese Taipei



-- Anonymous, July 13, 2001


But if you were an Olympics athlete from Taiwan, would you be able to do your best, given the fear engendered by merely being in mainland China? I don't envy the contestants.

I also wonder if the athletes will insist on a vegetarian diet. . .

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2001


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